


Twelve Months of Max; or How To Make Friends Through Your Dog

by davecabbage



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Chuck can't interact with people like a normal human being, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-19
Updated: 2015-01-19
Packaged: 2018-03-07 23:36:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3187475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/davecabbage/pseuds/davecabbage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of twelve shorts centred around everyone's favourite bulldog Max that explores Chuck's relationships with those around him through his beloved dog.<br/>More tags to be added as this progresses.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Twelve Months of Max; or How To Make Friends Through Your Dog

**Author's Note:**

> So back on my tumblr I decided to spam people with a picture from my adorable bulldog calendar every month. Then in the shower (where all great ideas are formed) I thought it would be a neat idea to write a short involving Max to accompany each image. I started making notes and the idea kinda snowballed and it now I've committed myself to actually doing this.

 

 

 

“Well you’re a barrel of laughs tonight.” Scott groused. He put his bottle down and sent a pointed stare in Herc’s direction.

“Hmm.” Herc hummed absentmindedly to himself. He looked over at Scott when he actually registered his brother’s comment. “What?”

“Case in point.” Scott huffed. “You’ve been a right miserable bastard all night. Scarin’ away all the birds.”

Herc heaved a sigh and leant his elbows on the bar. “I shouldn’t have left the boy on his own.”

On one of the few nights they had off Scott had managed to convince him to spend it in some seedy bar. While he could have used a night off just as much as the next guy who spent his time between hours of training and mounds of paperwork – who knew being a ranger entailed so much of it? – he couldn’t help but picture Chuck’s sour expression as he left. The kid said he couldn’t care less what Herc did and part of him believed him, but the other part of him knew that behind the resentment was a lonely little boy who was too stubborn and hurt to accept his father’s company.

“And what were you gonna do? Sit there in silence all night while the kid just glared at you?” Scott shrugged. “He’s a tough kid, he’ll be fine on his own for one night.”

Well he wasn’t wrong. That much was true. With a grimace Herc recalled silent meals with Chuck who just picked at his food and responded with one word answers or grunts or not at all to his father’s attempts at conversation. But it wasn’t just one night, he thought, not really. He was away from his son more often than he was with him these days.

Herc sighed again. He was doing that a lot lately. “Kid’s lonely.”

Herc had seen it; he’d had to have been blind not to. Before the Kaiju he’d been away from home a lot, but after enlisting in the PPDC and starting his training in the Jaeger academy he saw even less of the boy. He missed the kid, but when they did spend what precious little time they had together he wanted nothing more than to throw himself back into his work. He had no idea how to talk to the kid anymore and it didn’t help that Chuck had withdrawn further away from him. He was lucky to get more than a few words out of him. The kid was bitter and angry and Herc knew he had every right to be. He just wish he didn’t have to take it out on him all the time. But Herc was all he had and so the kid vented his frustration out on him. Herc wasn’t stupid; he knew his son blamed him for his choice. And as much as it hurt, as much as it killed him to make that choice, he’d do it again. Angela would have kicked his sorry arse for choosing her.

“Of course he is, not exactly a bunch of kids running around a military facility every day. But he’ll endure. He’s a Hansen.” Scott declared.

Herc wasn’t so sure if that was a good or bad thing. “There’s more of his mother in him than our side of the family, thank god.”

Scott was quiet for a moment. He knew Angela was still a sore subject for Herc. That wound was still raw and bleeding for him and Chuck both. And it would scab over and turn into an ugly scar that the pair of them would carry for the rest of their lives. “Ah, we ain’t so bad.”

“Still, it’s probably for the best that only one of us procreated.”

“Oi, piss off.” Scott punched him playfully in the arm. It was harder than what most people would deliver but by his standards definitely playful. Herc knew all too well having grown up with the lout and having witnessed and been on the receiving end of Scott’s punches.

*

If Herc hadn’t regretted going out to some dive bar on his night off before, he definitely was on the walk back. If it could be called that. The two brothers staggered through the streets supporting one another as they attempted to navigate their way home. Having gotten lost twice already indicated that they weren’t having as much luck as they thought.

Scott almost tripped over the box and would have crushed the thing if it hadn’t been for Herc grabbing the collar of his jacket and pulling him back.

“Who put that there?” Scott complained.

“Probably the old guy.” Herc couldn’t tell if the old man sitting on the floor on a bunch of old blankets next to the box was sleeping, or even alive for that matter. He didn’t smell it in any case.

Scott knelt down in front of the box and peered down inside.

“The hell’re you doin’? Get away from there.”

“Brother, I have found the answer to your problem.”

“In a homeless guy’s box?”

“Not homeless.”

Herc almost shit himself as the old man suddenly animated like one of those motion sensing automatons.

“Christ!” Scott fell back on his arse. “Warn a bloke before you pull a resurrection stunt on him!”

“Two hundred.”

“Erm, what?” Herc stared at the old man.

“You want one of ‘em?” The old man replied. “Two hundred dollars.  No one wants ‘em so they’re goin’ cheap.”

Herc blinked and took a step closer to the box to get a look at the contents. Inside were several round and wrinkly little bulldog puppies that were crawling over each other and sniffing up at the two newcomers.

Scott grinned up at him. “Come on. We’ve gotta get one for the kid.”

“Chuck?”

“Unless you got some illegitimate love children running around that I don’t know about?”

“Piss off.”

“You’ll be a hero. Didn't the kid always bug the hell out of you about a dog?”

“Angie did…” Herc murmured.

Scott didn't seem to hear him. “It’ll be great for him. Keep him company and teach him some responsibility.” Scott reached down and scooped up one of the puppies. “It’ll make better company for the kid than you anyhow.”

“I don’t know…”

“Two hundred is a steal. You know how much purebreds like these used to go for?”

“What’s the catch?” Herc asked the old man, eyeing the box of puppies with suspicion.

“No catch.” The old man replied. “No one can afford animals these days. I got kids to feed. Can’t be stuck with these too.”

The old man’s statement rang true all right. What with the level of destruction both urban and natural, more and more people were homeless and resources were stretched thin. Rationing was introduced but there still wasn't enough to go around. Reconstruction of homes and industries as well as redistribution of supplies was a slow process years in the making still. People could barely keep their families alive without the addition of pets. The numbers in strays had risen significantly in recent years. On nights out like these they could be seen roaming the streets in droves.

“It’ll be great for the kid.” Scott pressed.

Herc thought on it. Chuck was lonely and the dog could be good for him. He wasn’t exactly the social kind with people and, as much as Herc didn’t want to admit it, maybe would struggle with people for a long time to come. What did it matter, he thought, if Chuck could keep himself company and talk with a dog instead of a person? So long as he had someone or something to talk to – well that’s all that really mattered wasn’t it?

 “I don’t sell ‘em, I know a hot dog joint that’ll take ‘em.” The old man noted.

Herc sincerely hoped that the old man was using a dirty manipulative trick to get him to fork over his money. Either way it was bloody well working. Scott was not helping matters either.

“Have a heart brother.” He held up the pup and shoved it in his face. “How could you condemn this precious little life to the slaughter?”

Herc would have pushed his teetering intoxicated brother over if not for the puppy in his hands.

“Alright, alright.” Herc held up his hands in defeat. “I’ll buy a bloody dog.”

Scott shot him a toothy grin and then looked down at the pup in his hands. “You hear that little buddy? You’re comin’ home with us.”

“Now hang on a minute.* Herc put his hand up in a stopping gesture. "I’m not picking out any old runt.”

Scott looked down at the pup, but shrugged and placed it back in the box with its siblings. “They all look the same to me.”

“You want a good, strong dog. Not some soft thing that runs with its tail between its legs.”

Scott looked down at the pudgy little pups. “I don’t think these guys have much in the tail department.”

“You know what I mean.”

Herc knelt down in front of the box and placed his hands on the sides. He lunged his face forward suddenly at the pups, shaking the box at the same time. There was a lot of whimpering and stumbling as the majority of the pups fell over each other in an attempt to get away from the giant looming monster that had invaded their tiny world. All of them, except one.

One puppy remained sitting on its backside and staring up at Herc. It leant forward and tried to lick at him. Herc grinned down at the pup and pulled back.

“That one.” He announced.

“Well he didn’t run.” Scott said. “But I’m not sure if that means he’s brave or just stupid.”

As if on cue the pup slumped forward and fell on its face. Scott shot Herc a look that seemed to say ‘you sure about this brother?’

Herc just nodded. “Yep. That one.”

Scott shrugged again. “All right, it’s your dog.”

He lifted the pup from the box and held it up to his face and grinned at it. “You hear that, little buddy? You’ll be the one coming home with us.”

Herc didn’t really feel like questioning how he’d gone from being talked into going out for drinks to being emotionally manipulated into buying a puppy. His brother always did have a knack for getting his own way.

“Go ahead, pay the man. Got my hands full here” Scott held his handful of puppy up to illustrate the point.

“Cheap bastard.” Herc groused and reached for his wallet. So much for ‘we’ he thought.

“Two hundred.” The old man stated as he held out a hand.

Herc pulled out his wallet and inspected the contents; it was depressingly lonely looking in there.

“I ain’t got that kind of money…” Herc murmured.

“Grab mine, I’m sure I’ve got something in there.” Scott said.

Herc snorted. “You’re even poorer than me.”

“You want me to contribute to your kid’s happiness or what?”

Herc shook his head and grabbed Scott’s wallet. Between the two of them they managed to scrounge together a measly sum of Ninety dollars.

Herc’s heart sank. He knew this was a stupid idea. Of course he would fail his son in this one task he thought. He couldn’t even scrape together enough money to get his only child a dog to keep him company while he abandoned him for days on end. What kind of father was he really, he lamented. He raised his arm to run his hand through his hair – a nervous and frustrated habit of his that Angela had pointed out to him – and his jacket sleeve rode up slightly revealing his watch.

Herc unclasped his watch, not even thinking about it, and held it up. “Ninety dollars and…this?”

Scott stared slack jawed. “Dad’s watch?”

“You got two hundred bucks?”

“You’re so soft on the boy.”

“This was _your_ idea!”

Scott had no witty comeback to that one. Herc sighed and handed over the watch. “It’s just a watch.”

The expression on Scott’s face told him that he didn’t buy his bullshit for a second.

The old man snatched the watch up and inspected it under the glow of the street light. He nodded to himself and pocketed it along with the money.

Ninety dollars and one family inheritance lighter Herc found himself in the possession of a tiny bulldog puppy.

“For you.” Scott dropped the pup into his hands. Herc awkwardly held up the wrinkly little bundle as it wriggled in his hands and snuffled at his fingers. He looked a little lost with the tiny pup that struggled to get a comfortable seat in his palms. Try as he might, he couldn’t get the thing to keep still in his hands. He wasn’t exactly sure how anyone expected him to get the pup back to his son in his state. Neither Scott nor the old man looked like they were going to be forthcoming with any suggestions.

“Little bugger looks like a wrinkly little potato.” Scott instead commented.

“Just don’t try to eat it.”

Scott’s laughter echoed throughout the empty street.

*

Smuggling a puppy into a military base was, in fact, not as simple a task as it sounded.

“Just shove it in your pocket.” Scott hissed as they got closer to the main entrance.

“It’s a dog, not a pack of bloody gum.” Herc hissed back.

“It’s small enough. Hide it under your jacket until we pass security.”

“How the bloody hell did I let you talk me into this?” Herc held the pup in one hand and pushed it inside his jacket. “Because this doesn’t look suspicious. I look like one of those arseholes trying to badly conceal a gun!”

“Shh, act casual.”

The pair of them walked stiffly past the security guard and nodded in greeting. Herc had to stoop slightly, holding the pup against his chest as he felt the thing start to wriggle in an attempt to escape the confines of his jacket. Scott patted him on the back as they walked. “Poor bastard drank one too many.”

The security guard just nodded in response.

 As soon as they were clear the pair of them broke into a brisk jog towards their rooms.

“I hate you.” Herc groaned.

“Nah, you don’t.”

*

It didn’t come as too much of a surprise to find Chuck still awake, even at this hour. The kid had been having trouble sleeping ever since Sydney and even now, more often than not, he didn’t sleep through the night entirely. Chuck would never admit it, but Herc could hear the tell-tale signs of his son’s nightmares when he checked in on him; he’d tried to get him to talk about it but Chuck shut him down every time.

Chuck was sitting on his bed with various pieces of scrap and wiring spread out in front of him as he tinkered with an old broken radio he’d commandeered from someone in LOCCENT who was going to throw the thing away. It had turned into a project for the kid; he’d declared that he would get it to work again and hadn’t stopped since. Herc knew he was stubborn enough not to give in until he did it. He’d sat there for hours on end, having completely taken the thing apart and then started to put it back together again, while tuning out everyone and everything around him. Herc was glad that he was keeping himself busy with something constructive, but he still worried about the kid. He just wished Chuck would set aside the machines, just for a little while, in favour of actual human beings.

“Chuck, c’mere.” Herc nudged the door open with his shoulder while keeping hold of the box under his arm. “I’ve got something for you.”

Chuck climbed off his bed and approached the box with caution, eyeing it as well as his dad and uncle with suspicion.

Herc had managed to find the unused box laying around. Unused in the sense that he emptied the contents on top of another box in one of the storage rooms and repurposed it as a makeshift bed for the pup. Scott had provided a blanket in the form of a rolled up PPDC jumper which Herc had no doubt in his mind that came from his own damn bunk. But, the pup had curled up in it and made itself comfortable as it dozed and Herc didn’t have the heart to take that away from it.

“What’s that?” Chuck asked as he peered inside.

“It’s a dog, Chuck.”

“I can see that, old man.” Chuck rolled his eyes.

“Oi, don’t call me that.”

Chuck ignored him. “What’re you doing with it?”

“Thought you could do with a bit of company.” Scott commented. He was leaning against the door frame with folded arms and watching Chuck’s reaction.

“Don’t need company.”

Herc sighed.

Scott rolled his eyes. “Ever the grateful one, your boy.”

“I didn’t ask for it.” Chuck sneered at him.

Herc felt his heart sink. This was not going as he had envisioned at all.

“I thought you always wanted a dog?” He asked.

It was true; Chuck _had_ always wanted a dog. But his love for the four legged animals came from his mum. Angela had been the one who loved dogs and had put the idea of getting one into his head. She had told her boy that she was going to discuss the idea with his dad for real, but then Scissure attacked Sydney and the matter died with her. The idea of playing with the puppy without her dug a sharp point into his chest. Caring for and loving the small animal without her felt like a form of betrayal.

“I don’t want a stupid dog, I want my mum back.” Chuck yelled, red-faced.

Herc could see the beginnings of tears in his eyes that he refused to let fall. “Chuck-”

Chuck turned his back on them and retreated into his bathroom, slamming the door. Startled, the pup let out a small whimper at the sound.

Herc stood there helpless, still holding the box. He’d really thought that Chuck would love the pup. While he hadn't expected Chuck to jump up and down shouting with joy – he was realistic when it came to his son and his show of emotions – he thought he would have warmed to the idea, and the pup, instantly. He wondered if Angela’s loss had broken something in his son that was beyond repair.

He felt Scott’s hand on his shoulder. “He’ll come around. Give ‘em both some time alone together. The wrinkly little bugger will grow on him.”

Herc gently placed the box on the floor, as not to disturb the pup any further, and retreated from Chuck’s room with his tail between his legs. It felt like he was losing more and more battles with his son than winning them. 

*

Chuck rolled over in bed and turned his back on the puppy in the box. He snatched the pillow and shoved it over his head at the pup’s whines but it did nothing to drown out the crying. 

With a huff he wrenched the pillow from his head and climbed out of bed and knelt beside the box. He stared down at the tiny pup who responded to his presence by wriggling about and crawling towards him. It made feeble attempts to paw at the edge of the box in a futile effort to get to him. Chuck watched the pup struggle and fall back down and whine at its failure, but it just kept trying over and over.

“Just give it up already.” Chuck grumbled down at it.

The pup only whined in response.

He sighed and sat down next to the box and reached his hand in. The pup immediately ceased its cries and snuffled at his fingers. Chuck wiggled his fingers when it licked them.

“Guess you miss yours too, eh?” Chuck murmured as he stroked the pup’s head. “I know what that’s like. Losing your mum…”

He slid his hand under the pup and carefully scooped it up and held it in the air up to get a good look at it. It wriggled and squirmed in his grasp.

“Oi, hold still will yah?” He frowned at it.

The pup licked his nose in response.

“Guess you _are_ sorta cute…”

The pup yawned.

He set the pup down in his lap and it pawed at his legs in an effort to get comfortable before settling down.

“Well, you don’t say much. Guess that does make you better company than my old man and Uncle Scott.” He mused. “Not that that’s hard.”

The pup nuzzled against his leg and closed its eyes.

“Suppose someone’ll have to take care of you. Since you’re so weak and helpless on your own…” He scratched absentmindedly behind the pup’s ears until its breathing evened out and he could hear its tiny snores. “Those two idiots would only screw it up. Just look at the job they’re doing with me.”

*

When Herc pushed open the door to Chuck’s room to check on his son and his new companion he found an empty bed. The pillow and blankets had been pulled onto the floor and Chuck laid on his side with a tiny bundle of wrinkles and fur curled up against his chest.

Herc smiled down at the pair and gently closed the door.

**Author's Note:**

> New chapter every month.
> 
> Come say hi over on tumblr (if you want) http://davecabbage.tumblr.com/


End file.
